LONDON - HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, plans to raise more than 12 billion pounds (S$26.3 billion) in a share sale aimed at propping up its capital base during the global economic crisis, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

The FT said the share issue would likely be announced alongside its full-year 2008 results due on Monday.

BANGKOK - FLAG carrier Thai Airways posted a huge loss of 21.3 billion baht (S$909 million) in 2008 because of high fuel prices and protests that briefly shuttered Bangkok's airports, the company said.

The airline made a profit of 4.4 billion baht in 2007, and last year's plunge was the company's first annual loss in 43 years.

HOUSTON - THE chief investment officer of troubled Stanford Financial Group was forced to borrow money from her attorney Friday to cover her US$300,000 (S$464,000) bond and avoid spending the weekend in jail.

During a court hearing on Friday, Laura Pendergest-Holt was painted alternately as the scapegoat for what regulators now call a massive pyramid scheme and as one of the few people who knows where millions stolen from investors are hidden. She was unable to post the US$30,000 in cash.